Conway, Counselor to the President Donald Trump, must have an iron will to continue working in such an anti-female administration.
Presidential advisor Kellyanne FitzPatrick Conway stepped forward bravely at the weekend and told her own story of sexual abuse. She expressed her sympathy for other victims.
‘‘I feel very empathetic, frankly, for victims of sexual assault, sexual harassment and rape. I'm a victim of sexual assault,’’ Conway said.
Though she did not elaborate about it, the coming out of such a high-profile figure will surely help convince others to do so.
Yet she works in a White House where her boss was taped boasting about grabbing women by the p***y and he has 19 different women alleging he harassed them.
Are they all lying?
Is there not a cognitive deficit here for Kellyanne, admitting she is a survivor yet working for a man who clearly has antipathy towards women and a long history of treating them badly?
Conway is smart as all hell, the first woman to be campaign manager for a successful candidate for the presidency and a survivor in the Trump White House where so many have been fired or fled. She has a special affinity for women, raised by a single mother and two aunts in Waterford Township, New Jersey, after her father abandoned the marriage.
She knows the score. Previously, Conway almost went public on cases of sexual harassment by congressmen against her, proving how difficult an environment Washington DC can be for women.
‘‘I would talk to some of the members of Congress out there. I remember when I was younger and prettier, them rubbing up against girls sticking their tongues down women’s throats. It was true,’’ Conway said during a post-presidential debate interview.
Last week, in Europe, a woman alleged she had been raped by soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo in a hotel in Las Vegas, in 2009. It seems male superstars are not immune from #MeToo complaints. It is a powerful movement spreading worldwide.
So, Kellyanne Conway operates in a White House that seems, to put it mildly, unsympathetic to women, especially those brave enough to recount sexual allegations. In addition, one of Trump’s most valued staff members, Rob Porter, admitted he was a wife beater.
The hostility to women is not just confined to sex issues, the stated aim is to load up the Supreme Court and end legal abortions and attack other women’s rights issues. Witness also the small number of women in key positions and Trump’s frequent attacks, the latest on Doctor Blasey Ford, for daring to come forward and make allegations against a powerful man.
One wonders how Kellyanne can go to work in an environment so charged with anti-female bias. She must have an iron will to stick it out.
Here is Kellyanne Conway’s interview on CNN’s “State of the Union”:
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